Dissociable contributions of cold and hot executive function networks in predicting emotion regulation strategies

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies depend on executive functions; however, it remains unclear how cold and hot executive function networks differentially contribute to the habitual use of distinct ER strategies. We applied connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) to resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) data from 748 healthy individuals (aged 16-26) to examine whether intrinsic connectivity within cold and hot executive networks predicts individual differences in the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. The results indicated that stronger connectivity within cold executive function-related core regions (e.g., the lateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) predicted greater habitual use of expressive suppression, whereas reduced connectivity within hot executive function-related core regions (e.g., the medial orbitofrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex) predicted greater habitual use of cognitive reappraisal. Notably, cognitive reappraisal was associated with prominent inter-network connectivity centered on the default mode network (DMN), which includes core regions of hot executive function, and the frontoparietal network (FPN), involving reduced connectivity between the FPN and DMN, cingulo-opercular network (CON), salience network (SAL), and the auditory network (AN). In contrast, expressive suppression was characterized by prominent FPN-centered connectivity, which includes core regions of cold executive function, with increased connections between the FPN and DMN, as well as between the ventral attention network (VAN) and AN. These findings delineate dissociable large-scale neural architectures underlying distinct ER strategies and suggest that cold and hot executive systems play complementary roles in shaping individual regulatory tendencies.